Grandmother’s Country 

Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi made this painting, Grandmother’s Country, using acrylic paint on canvas. These are not traditional materials, of course; they came to Aboriginal artists via the market. But just because they’re store-bought doesn’t mean they lack cultural significance. Look at the surface, so densely worked with countless tiny dots. Think of the sheer labor involved. The painting’s effect is due to the artist’s application of the dots; the optical vibration they set up across the surface; the fields of concentric circles suggesting sacred sites, and serpentine lines echoing the paths of ancestors. The painting represents the artist’s grandmother’s country, a specific place deeply embedded in the Aboriginal belief system known as The Dreaming. In a very real sense, the act of making this painting, and others like it, is a continuation of that tradition, and keeps it alive for future generations. What might seem like a commodity made for sale is, in fact, an act of devotion.